Welcome ! This blog is a space for critical conversation on the state of global crisis, democracy and transformation. It has a particular focus on post-apartheid South Africa and its multi-faceted crisis. The South African crisis is linked to the crisis of global capitalism. This blog will feature critical analysis, debates, crucial documents from grass roots movements and useful online resources as part of Defending Popular Democracy.

Thursday, 28 April 2016

South
Africans mainly eat bread on a daily basis. Food corporations make millions
from bread which contributes to profits, bonuses and hugh salaries for
management. At the same time, food industry workers earn low wages and are
mainly outsourced.

South
Africa’s drought is affecting millions of people and increasing starvation.
Coal burning is killing us. Climate change is further exposing the problems
with a corporate controlled food system. Before the drought 14 million people
went to bed hungry and about 46% were food insecure. Many more are suffering
now. Food profiteering denies us the right to food under the constitution.

All
studies show bread and food prices are increasing because of the drought and a
corporate controlled food system. At the same time, Grain South Africa has
confirmed that imported wheat is cheaper than local wheat. Bread prices should
not be going up but should be declining. We are experiencing a ‘bread price
scam’. The Competition Commission has failed to stop this. Some retailers
believe by keeping bread price increases below food inflation is acceptable. We
reject this profiteering given the crisis facing our society. Its time for peoples power, through
non-violent action,to end food
profiteering

We demand:

·No to any
bread price increases. Instead, we demand #breadpricesmustfall and
#foodpricesmustfall.

·Criminal
prosecution of CEOs of food corporations imposing bread price increases which
deny us the right to food;

·An
investigation of the bread price scam and its impact on the poor by the Public
Protector and the Human Rights Commission;

·An end to
outsourcing and descent work for food industry workers;

·A Food
Sovereignty Act to diversify our food system and ensure the people control the
food system;

·South Africa
must #BreakFreeFromCoal Now!

·Zuma and
food profiteers must go!

Unite against hunger and food
profiteering. Join us for Peoples Bread March and Speak Out:

Date:
Friday, 29th April

Time:
1.30pm

Location:
53 Hillbrow Street, Berea, Stay City Conference Centre. We start here and end
at Shoprite on Raleigh/Rocky Street.

The nightmare of the Jacob Zuma presidency has its roots in the South African Communist Party-led (SACP) bandwagon to displace the neoliberal Thabo Mbeki and affirm a “working-class hero” at the helm of the state.

The SACP command centre spiked all strategic debate about contesting state power, tied trade union federation Cosatu to its disastrous plans, narrated the “Zuma Trojan Horse” as the victim of a conspiracy – and anyone providing principled opposition was victimised, humiliated and herded out of the SACP.

Although senior leaders of the liberation struggle such as Ahmed Kathrada, Denis Goldberg and others did not speak out at the start of the “Zumafication” of South Africa, it is comforting that they refuse to defend the indefensible today. The country needs more stalwarts to stand up and say: Zuma must go.

The SACP in Gauteng (I was the party’s provincial secretary at the time) challenged the morally and ideologically bankrupt politics of the SACP leadership. The party in Gauteng leaned towards the SACP contesting state power through mass politics to reclaim the strategic ­initiative for the left and working class at its 2005 special conference on state power.

If the SACP had resolved to contest power electorally then, South Africa would have been in a different place today; very likely with a more robust and mature democracy, including a serious left discourse in the mainstream of society. In the end the debate was killed and this path was not taken by the SACP.

I was formally expelled in 2009 for writing about the misguidedness of the “Zuma path to socialism” and the political suicide of the SACP. The SACP-constructed populism brought together various elements: authoritarianism, ethnic chauvinism, patriarchy, an anti-constitutionalism, ­corruption and the cult of Zuma.

This was not the making of a left shift by any stretch of the imagination, yet it was given a class belonging, draped in a radical rhetoric and positioned in the theatre of militant street politics.

Unleashed on the country since Zuma’s rape trial in 2005, this bandwagon swept through Polokwane and has marched through our ­democratic institutions with the imprimatur of the Zuma presidency.

What has this authoritarian populism produced? In simple terms a catalogue of impunity against the grain of national liberation history.

This has worked in three ways. First, through the brazen acquisition of wealth at the expense of the people. The ANC cadre has evolved the idea of the “liberation tax” (alternatively known as black economic empowerment), which means we have struggled and therefore deserve to be rich. The people owe us – and we, as liberators, have to be paid back. Sacrifice, servant leadership and ethical commitment to the people is all but extinguished.

The nefarious Gupta business empire, conspicuous accumulation by the Zuma family and many other scandalous schemes of wealth acquisition have created a moral gulf between the ANC and the people.

This schism is most starkly expressed in the 2012 Marikana massacre of mineworkers, who were demanding a monthly wage of R12 500, and pervasive localised protest actions against corrupt and inept ANC councillors.

Second, the mythic and actual heroism of national liberation has been reduced to the political whip of “skeletons in the closet”, according to Bathabile Dlamini, president of the ANC Women’s League. Corruption is rampant, therefore all ANC cadres are compromised and must display obeisance to Zuma. Put differently, we are closing ranks in the ANC because we are no different from Zuma and are as culpable as he is for looting.

Third, farcical apologia for failed leadership. Zuma has made numerous apologies – including to Malawi for his xenophobic barb about the state of its roads – and this has become the default mode to excuse the conduct of a deeply flawed president. After the Constitutional Court affirmed Zuma’s unconstitutional conduct on the Nkandla issue, he apologised, again, merely to scapegoat legal advisers.

It is in this context that we hear important moral voices from stalwarts of the struggle such as Kathrada, Goldberg, Ronnie Kasrils, and others. They know and are affirming that Zuma and those standing with him are making and writing a history that undermines national liberation history.

Zuma’s ANC is producing a history against the people and places South Africa in a dangerous place. In itself, this recognition should move all generations of activists, inside and outside the ANC, to stand up and be counted against Zuma.

The second consequence of authoritarian populism is about imperilling the country. The SACP’s Zuma bandwagon produced the likes of Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema, now referred to as a fascist in SACP propaganda, yet he is the progeny of their Zuma project.

Authoritarian populism has become contemporary South African politics. In this cauldron we have seen the rise of a vulgarised black consciousness (even at universities), Africanism and more white racism.

The diffusion of authoritarian populism as the measure of what it means to be political has put society on a collision course with our constitutional democracy. The valorisation of affect, the body, identity and violence (from Umshini Wami songs to burning art and buildings at universities) misses the larger picture of a democracy being hollowed out by globalised finance and an avaricious black and white elite.

For Zuma, a cult figure reinforced by the cloak of presidential authority, a divided country and a polity that operates more like him in the political sense, means he can do as he pleases and hence the manipulation of Parliament, defiance of the public protector, the compromising of the National Prosecuting Authority and now indifference to the real meaning of the Constitutional Court judgment against him.

At the people’s assembly of the Zuma Must Go campaign in Soweto last week, citizens from different walks of life and from more than 70 organisations affirmed the limits of a Zumafied democracy. “We will not be Zumafied!” was a constant refrain – and we will not defeat Zuma by being like him. A people’s line was drawn; a push-back plan through nonviolent and disciplined political action was affirmed and a defence of constitutional democracy was unequivocally committed to.

In the open and democratic conversation that ensued in Soweto, citizens placed Zuma on notice. Unlike the recall of former president Mbeki, which was an internal ANC-led tripartite alliance coup, the Zuma Must Go discourse is broader than the ANC and is about affirming citizens’ power as the bedrock of our demo-cracy. It is a real political test for the ANC: Can it genuinely listen to and respect citizens voices?

The Zuma Must Go campaign seeks to send a message to all political elites that operating outside the Constitution has costs and will not be tolerated. Hence the boldness of the call: dissolve this Parliament and have a snap election to address the undermining of Parliament by ANC cronyism.

The criminal racket set up to defend Zuma has defiled Parliament and calls into question whether it embodies the will of the people. This is an open dare to the ANC, which has brazenly taken the people for granted throughout the Zuma saga.

Moreover, the meme Zuma Must Go is an open act of defiance towards the ANC’s attempt to silence this call inside the ANC and in society. It will haunt Zuma wherever he goes in public; it will find its way into important spaces and at key moments. From bumper stickers to pickets, from occupations to a social media barrage, the Zuma regime should expect his illegitimacy to be amplified. This is a message that will only go away when Zuma goes. This is also when Zapiro can remove the shower head.

Citizens gathered at the Soweto meeting also recognised that rolling mass action will be a powerful weapon of people’s power in coming months. It was recognised that merely having a mass meeting, a rally or even a march was not sufficient to pull Zuma down.

In coming months, expect actions on key national days such as April 27, at the launch of the new labour federation, at a people’s Drought Speak Out, #FoodPricesMustFall actions and at bread marches. This is about harnessing the symbolic power of the people to affirm that their suffering, hunger, voicelessness and marginalisation are all connected to Zuma being in power.

Of course, Zuma’s ANC will call all of this an imperialist plot, or some other such mindless slander will be spewed out. Although we expect the shrinking number of the brave and principled in the ANC to defend our right to exist in a democracy, it is also important to recognise that the ANC lost its anti-imperialism a long time ago. A deeply globalised economy under ANC leadership for the past 21 years has merely shored up imperial power at the expense of the people.

So, hopefully, the Zuma Must Go campaign will assist the ANC in realising how anti-people it has become. But, more importantly, we want this campaign to affirm that the future of South Africa’s democracy belongs to each of its citizens.

It is time we all took responsibility to ensure Zuma goes now – and that we do not let South Africa fall further.

Vishwas Satgar is an associate professor in international relations at the University of the Witwaters­rand. He works on the Zuma Must Go campaign and the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign.

Saturday, 16 April 2016

NATIONAL CIVIL SOCIETY ACTION
PLAN TO DEFEND SOUTH AFRICA’S CONSTITUTION:

Zuma Must Go!

We
the people gathered in Soweto on the 16th of April, 2016, have
resolved to defend our country’s Constitution. We met following the
Constitutional Court judgement that found that President Zuma has failed to
uphold, defend and promote South Africa’s Constitution. We believe that there
is no greater crime our head of state can commit than violating our society’s
founding document – the Constitution. We believe that no apology can mend the
damage caused by the unconstitutional conduct of the President.The right thing to do is for President Jacob
Gedleyihlekisa Zuma to resign.

We
accept that the resignation of Zuma will not resolve all the challenges we face
in restoring democracy and accountability, but it is a necessary first step. We
also call for the National Assembly to be dissolved, and for national elections
urgently to be held. We shall not accept the replacement of one thief by
another. We have resolved to embark on a national rolling mass action to force Zuma
to resign. We call upon all patriotic South Africans, black and white, young
and old, to take power back to the people by participating in our mass action. We
the people have resolved:

1.to launch a rolling mass action on Freedom Day,
27April 2016, at the biggest rally of all time in Johannesburg, Beyers
Naude Square;

2.to organise sit-ins, in all nine provinces, at
national symbols of political and economic power until Zuma resigns, and to peacefully
disrupt all public platforms where Zuma is scheduled to speak as he no longer
has the authority of President;

3.to use our organisational and material resources
to mobilise support for the Zuma Must Go campaign;

4. we demand a reform of our electoral system to
enable South Africans directly to elect their President and members of
Parliament;

5. to consider a range of other proposals,
including withholding tax, weekly pickets andholding a Festival of Resistance;

6.to link the struggle against corruption with the
struggle against poverty and hunger, and for food sovereignty by supporting the
Drought Speak Out campaign activities and the demand for food prices to fall;

7. to mobilise other sympathetic civil society
organisations, including trade unions, student and youth organisations,our families and friends, to take part in our
mass action;

8.to join hands with communities protesting about
service delivery;

9.to continue to build a broad coalition of forces
which is based on principles of non-violence, maximum participation and
discipline; and

10.to
demand a meeting of Civil Society organisations with President Zuma to tell him
to resign;

This
National Civil Society Action Plan expresses our patriotic resolve to restore
faith in South Africa’s constitutional democracy. It is a clarion call for all
South Africans to defend and use the state as an instrument to improve the
lives of the poor, to create jobs for the unemployed and to advance the
interests of our country.

Civil Society Organisations to Announce Steps in Campaign for the South Africa we Demand

It Starts with the Removal of a Corrupt President

This evening an alliance of civil society, church, trade union and academic organisations held an urgent meeting to discuss the growing political and economic crisis that faces South Africa. In attendance were representatives of the Anglican Church of SA, the Evangelical Alliance, the SA Christian Leadership Initiative, the United Front, trade unions, the artists’ coalition and civil society organisations including Corruption Watch and the TAC.

The meeting took place in the wake of another vote in Parliament which, by voting against impeaching the President, dishonoured our Constitution and disappointed millions of people. This means our country will continue to lurch from crisis to crisis. Clearly the National Assembly has yet to understand the Constitutional Court’s pronouncements on the separation of powers and its primary duty to defend and advance the Constitution.

People are feeling pain. Anger and urgency is growing. Ever larger numbers of people and organisations join the clamour to insist that Jacob Zuma resign or be removed by the ANC. Political parties have failed. Persuasion and appeal has failed. The courts have spoken. Now the people will have to reclaim our hard won democracy from those who defile it for self-interest.

A high level civil society press conference will be held tomorrow, Wednesday 6 April, at 3pm on the steps of the Constitutional Court to announce the first steps in a plan of nationwide protest, social mobilisation and consultation. The press conference will be addressed by senior leaders of civil society.

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About Me

Vishwas Satgar has been a grass roots activist in South Africa for more than 3 decades. He is currently engaged in supporting the Solidarity Economy Movement in township communities, supporting food sovereignty campaigning , climate jobs campaigning and defending popular democracy in South Africa. His academic interests include a focus on African political economy, Empire and Global crisis, Green Global political Economy and Transnational Alternatives.